Method and apparatus for making loop pile fabric



July 12, 1960 w. A. RICE 2,944,510

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING LOOP FILE FABRIC 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 27, 1959 4/31/42 "Ella/r232 dizzM m mw ATTORNEYS y .12, 1 0 w. A. RICE 2,944,570

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING LOOP FILE FABRIC 7 Filed Aug. 27. 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING LOOP FILE FABRIC Filed Aug. 27, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 km? R BY 2'2 ATTORNEY July 12, 1960 w. A. was 2, 4

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING LOOP nus: maruc Filed Aug. 27, 1959 a Shuts-Shut 4 IM-Ml lJ'L-NITTII-I B 64- ATTORNEY;

United States Patent METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING LOOP PILE FABRIC Walter A. Rice, Amsterdam, N.Y., assignor to Mohasco Industries, Inc., Amsterdam, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Aug. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 836,430

12 Claims. (Cl. 139-38) This invention relates to the production of pile fabrics by weaving and is concerned more particularly with a In the practice of the method of the patent by means of the patented loom, pile, binder, and stufr'er warp yarns are manipulated in each of successive cycles to form a series of sheds, in which filling shots are inserted m the g/ usual way with each inserted shot beaten up to the fell of the goods. In one shed in each cycle in which the pile yarns are in the upper line, the pile yarns are engaged by hooks and drawn out of their normal positions in the upper line to form pile loops of uniform height and the yarns are held in loop form until a filling shot is inserted in the following shed in the cycle and beaten up. The pile yarns are drawn from individual supplies by the take-up of the goods and, betweenthe supplies and the harnesses, the yarns pass through a device having members formed to clamp yarns selected in accordance with a pattern. When the hooks act to draw out the pile yarns to-form loops, certain yarns are clamped by the.

device and others not as determined by the pattern but all the yarnsare formed into loops initially of the same height by the hooks. However, the formation of a loop of a clamped yarn by a hook subjects that yarn to heavy tension and causes the yarn to stretch and, when the loop of the clamped yarn is released by the hook after the beating up of the filling shot inserted in'the following shed in the cycle, the tension on the yarn causes it to contract so that the loop last formed is reduced in height. The fabric thus has a pile made up of high loops and lower loops.

The successful practice of the method of the patent depends upon the weaving of a fabric of tight construction in which each pile yarn is so firmly bound in the fabric after the formation of a loop of the yarn that the drawing out by a hook of a loop of a yarn which has been clamped, will not result in the robbing of the yarn from a preceding loop but will only cause the clamped yarn to be stretched. In a fabric made by the patented method and containing stulfer warp yarns in a single level, the desired tightness inlthe construction is obtained by raising each pile yarn to form a loop be tween a pair of adjacent filling shots above the stutr'er warp yarns with the loop lying above a filling shot below the stuffer warp yarns and by inserting at least four filling shots per cycle. In such a fabric, adjacent pile loops are separated by two or more filling shots above the stuffer warp yarns and the loops are firmly anchored in place. In order to obtain adequate coverage of the backing, the loops are of considerable length.

The method and loom of the invention may be employed in the production of fabrics having loops varying in height and closely conforming to the requirements of the pattern and, in the fabric so produced, variation in the height of the loops is not obtained by reliance on the resilience of the pile yarns. In the practice of the new method on the loom of the invention, the pile yarns are positively drawn from individual supplies thereof and fed toward the fell of the fabric in increments, onev increment being fed per cycle and" the increments varying in length as determined by the pattern. During each cycle, the pile yarns are drawn out of their normal positions in the top line of a shed to form pile loops of maximum height. If the increment of a pile yarn fed in any cycle is not sufficient for the formation of a loop of maximum height, the formation of a loop in that cycle results in yarn being robbed from the loop formed in the preceding cycle and the reduction in height of such preceding loop. Although each loop is bound in position by filling shots inserted after the drawing out of the loop, the fabric construction employed is sufficiently loose to permit loop-robbing as described. Accordingly, in the practice of the new method, the formation of loops of less than maximum height is not achieved by means of the resilience of the yarn and, as a consequence, inaccuracies in the heights of the loops resulting from variations in the yarn are avoided.

In the fabric produced by the new method, a single set of stuffer warp yarns may be used or the stuifer warp yarns may lie in upper and lower sets. The filling shots then lie either above and below the single set of stuffer warp yarns or in levels above the upper set of stufier warp yarns, between the upper and lower sets of yarns, and below the lower set of yarns. Each pile yarn loop crosses at least one filling shot lying above the stuffer warp yarns and each loop is bound in place by portions which pass beneath filling shots lying below the single set of stuffer warp yarns or below filler shots lying in the middle or bottom v levels.

harness motion, lay, needle motion, etc, and, in addition,

its has a set of hooks adapted to engage pile warp yarns in the upper line of a shed and to draw out the yarns .to form pile loops. The pile warp yarns are not drawn from their supplies by the take-up of the goods but the loom is equipped'with means for positively drawing the pile yarns from the supplies and feeding the y-arns in increments toward the -fell-of the goods. The mechanism for operating the hooks and that for drawing the pile yarns from the supplies and feeding the yarns are coupled so that each time the hooks operate, an increment of each pile yarn is fed. The lengths of the increments of pile yarn so fed are determined by a pattern.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to'the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of a loom embodying the invention and suitable for the practice of the new method;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing parts of the pile yarn feeding mechanism hidden in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3-7, incl., are diagrammatic views showing different stages in a cycle of operation of the loom shown in Fig. 1 in the production of one form of loop pile fabric;

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic vertical longitudinal sectional view of a fabric made by the use of the new method and loom;

Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view of the fabric of Fig. 8;

Figs. 10 and 11 are diagrammatic vertical longitudinal sectional and bottom plan views, respectively, of another form ofthe fabric made by the use of the new method and loom; and

Figs. 12 and 13 are diagrammatic vertical longitudinal sectional views of two other forms of fabric which can be made by the method and loom of the invention.

The loom shown in Figs. 1 and 2 has sides 20 and is equipped for the usual harness motion 21 including heddle frames 22 and 23 which control the pile warp yarns P and the binder warp yarns B, respectively, and heddle frames 24 and 25 which control the top stuffer warp yarns TS and the bottom stuifer warp yarns BS. The pile yarns are fed from individual packages 26 in a creel, while the binder and stufier warp yarns are supplied from respective beams. The loom has a needle motion for inserting shots of filling yarn in the warp sheets and the inserted shots are beaten up by the usual lay 27 including a reed 28 mounted on swords 29 on a rock-shaft 30. At

' the front of the loom, a breast beam 31 is mountedbetween upward extensions 20a of the loom sides and the extensions are provided at their tops with grooves serving as guideways in which a bar 32 extending across the loom at a distance above the breast beam is mounted for reciprocation lengthwise of the yarns. The bar is pro-.

4 are advanced stepwise by the action of the pawl 58 and the ratchet wheel 57 and, in each step of the chain movement, a wire on each chain is disengaged from the pile yarns.

' The pile yarns drawn from the spools pass through individual guides 60 and form a sheet engaged by the intermeshing wires 41, 47. From the wires, the yarns pass through guides 61 to the eyes of the heddles of frame 22.

In the practice of the method on the loom described, the harness motion functions in the usual way to form sheds of the warp yarn. In one shed in each cycle, the

pile and binder warp yarns lie in the top line of the shed' and, as soon as this shed has been formed, the rock-shaft 38 is rocked clockwise and this causes the rocker arm 35 to move the hook members to the left, as shown in Fig. 1,

' so that the hooks thereon engage the pile warp yarns and vided with a plurality of hook members 33 which have the form of thin flat wires and extend through the dents in the reed 28 and terminate in heads 34 lying between the yarns at the side of the reed adjacent the harness motion. Each hook member 33 has a hook 33a formed on its lower edge and the hook is bent out of the plane of the wire and points toward the breast beam. The bar 32 is reciprocated in the guideways at the top of the loom side extensions a by a rocker arm 35 pivoted on one of the extensions and actuated by a link 36 connected to one arm of a bell crank 37 on a rock-shaft 38.

The pile yarns are drawn from the individual packages 26 and fed toward the fell of the fabric in increments by means of a feed mechanism generally designated 39. This mechanism feeds the individual yarns at varying rates in accordance with the pattern to be produced in the pile and may beof any suitable type, such as those shown'in the patents to Nix 2,875,714, Parlin 2,876,183, and Boyes 2,876,441, all issued March 3, 1959, or in the patent to Crawford 2,853,033, issued September 23, 1958. The Crawford mechanism is preferred and is illustrated.

The feed mechanism includes a lower set of parallel endless chains 40 and corresponding links of the chains are connected by flat wires 41 extending transversely of the yarns passing from the packages 26 to the eyes of the heddles in frame 22. The chains are trained about sprocket wheels on shafts 42 mounted in brackets 43 attached to the loom sides and one shaft 42a carries a sprocket wheel driven by a chain 44 trained about a sprocket wheel on a shaft 45. I

The feed mechanism includes an upper set of parallel endless chains 46 having corresponding links connected by flat wires 47 extending transverse to the pile yarns. Chains 46 are trained around a plurality of sprocket wheels on shafts 48 carried by the brackets 43 and one shaft 48a carries a sprocket wheel driven by a chain 49 trained about a sprocket wheel on a shaft 50 which carries a gear 51 meshing with a pinion on a shaft} 52. Shaft 50 is also connected by a gearing to shaft 45, while shaft 52 is connected by a chain 53 to a sprocket wheel 54 on a shaft 56 carrying a ratchet wheel 57 ,enga'geable by a pawl 58 on a rocker arm 59 pivoted on shaft 56.

draw them out of 'theirnormal positions in the top line of the shed. The movement of the rock-shaft also causes the rocker arm 59 to swing so that the pawl 58 advances the ratchet wheel 57 by one tooth. This movement of l the ratchet wheel causes the chains 40 and 46 to be advanced by one wire on each chain.

The length of a yarn lying between a pair of wires 41 on the parallel stretches of the chains and deflected by a wire 47 from its rectilinear path between the top edges of wires 41 constitutes a feed increment of the yarn and the length of such increment depends on the extent to which the yarn is deflected between the wires 41 by the section of wire 47 engaging the yarn. Such a feed increment is released from between the wires on the parallel stretches of the chains each time the chains are advanced one step, that is, each time the hooks act to to the other arm of bell crank 37 on rock-shaft38.

As shown in Fig. 2, the chains 40 and 46 are guided by the sprocket wheels on shafts 42 and 48 so that stretches of the chains lie parallel, and the wires 41, 47 on the links .of the chains in these stretches intermesh. The wires 41 are of uniform height from end to end, while the wires 47 are made up of sections adapted to engage individual yarns and varying in height in accordance with the requirements of the pattern. The intermeshing of the wires of the two sets causes each pile yarn passing between the parallel stretches of the chains to assume a wave form and the amplitude of successive waves of each yarn depends on the height of the pattern draw the pile yarns from the top line of a shed. If such an increment of a yarn released from between the wires 40, 47 is sulficient for a loop of maximum height, the formation of the loop has no effect on other loops. However, if the increment of a pile yarn fed in a cycle is of insulficient length for a loop of maximum height, the formation of the loop by the drawing of the yarn out of the top line of the shed by a hook and the heating up of the filling shot inserted in the following shed will result in yarn being robbed from the loop formed in the preceding cycle. The length of each fwd increment thus determines the final height of the loop formed in the preceding cycle.

The action of the loom will be understood from the diagrammatic views forming Figs. 3-7, incl. These views illustrate different stages in the production of a fabric in which there are stuifer warps TS and BS in upper and lower sets and filling shots 62 lying above the top stutter warp yarns TS, filling shots 63 lying in a middle level between the top and bottom stutfer warp yarns TS, BS, and filling shots 64 lying in a lower level below the bottom stutfer warp yarns BS. In the shed illustrated in Fig. 3, the pile yarns P and the binder yarns B lie in the upper line and the stufl'er warp yarns TS, BS lie in the lower line. In this stage of the loom cycle, the hook members 33 start to move to the left at about the time of insertion of an upper filling shot 62 and continue to move during the beating up of the shot 62, as shown in Fig. 4. Simultaneously with the movement of the hook members, the chains 40, 46 are advanced one step to draw an increment of each of the pile yarns from the supplies 26 and to feed them toward the fell of the fabric. I

The increment of the pile yarn P fed in the cycle shown is inadequate for the formation of a loop of maximum height and, as a result, the drawing of the pile yarn from itsnormal position in the top line of the shed by a hook, member 33, as, shown in Fig. 5, causes yarn to be robbed from the loop 65 inserted in the preceding yarn P during the formation and inserting of a filling section of the wires 47 formingthe waves. The chains 76 shot in shed shown in Fig. 5, in which the top and bottom stuifer TS, BS are in the upper line and the pile yarns P and binder yarns B are in the lower line. As the shot 64 is inserted in the shed and beaten up, the length of the pile yarn P extending down from the hook is moved to the vertical and this causes the yarn to be pulled through the hook and the robbing of the preceding loop 65 to be completed. In the final shed in the cycle (Fig. 6), the top stutter yarns TS lie in the upper line and all the other warp yarns are in the lower line so that the filling shot 63 inserted ,in the shed lies in the middle level. During the formation of this shed and the beating up of the filling shot 63, the books 33 release the pile yarn loops and move to the right in position to engage the pile yarns in the upper line of the next shed (Fig. 7), which is the same as that shown in Fig. 4 and is the first shed in the second cycle.

, The fabric shown in Figs. 8 and 9 includes an upper set of stutfer warp yarns TS and a lower set BS. Filler I shots 62, 63, and 64 extend transversely in an upper level above the top stufier warp yarns, in a middle level between the upper and lower sets of stuifer warp yarns, and in a lower level below the low set of stuifer warp yarns. The filling shots are held in place by a single set of binder yarns B and the pile of the fabric is formed by pile yarns P which pass beneath successive bottom weft shots 64 and form loops which cross a top weft shot 62. In the section of the fabric shown, the pattern has required the formation of two high loops followed by two lower loops and then a high loop. With the feed mechanism illustrated, it is possible to form loops of more than two heights and many forms can be obtained. Also, in all the fabrics made by the new method and loom, the pile loops may cross more than one filling shot and as many as desired.

In a fabric made by the method and loom, the number of binder and stuffer yarns and the distribution of these yarns across the fabric may vary. A typical fabric having the pile construction shown in Fig. 8 may include two top stulfer yarns TS, two bottom yarns BS, and two binder yarns B in each space between adjacent pile yarns P across the fabric and such a construction is shown in Fig. 9. In that view, the middle and bottom filling shots 63, 64 have been illustrated as separated to make the construction clear, whereas, in the actual fabric, these shots lie one above the other.

The fabric shown in Fig. 10 contains the same number of stuifer yarns 66 as are employed in the fabric of Fig. 8 and the yarns lie in one level, although they have been shown in two levels in Fig. 10 in order to indicate their number. The filling shots 67, 68 lie above and below the stuffer yarns and are held in place by a single set of binder yarns B. The pile yarns P are bound beneath successive bottom filling shots 68 and each pile loop crosses at least one filling shot 67 above the stuffer yarns. In the fabric, adjacent pile yarns P are separated by a pair of binder yarns B and four stufier warp yarns 66, as shown in Fig. 11.

The fabric shown in Fig. 12 includes stuffer yarns TS, BS in upper and lower sets and filling shots 62, 63, and 64 above the upper stuffer yarns, between the upper and lower stuffer yarns, and below the lower stutter yarns, respectively. The filling shots are bound'in place by binder yarns B, which pass over the upper filling shots 62 and beneath the filling shots 63, 64. The pile yarns P pass beneath successive bottom -filling shots 64 and over the adjacent filling shots 62, 63, the pile yarns passing between the shots 63, 64. When a fabric of the construction described is beaten up, the filling shots 63, 64 tend to move beneath the filling shot 62 of the same cycle but the pile yarns between the filling shots 63, 64 of the cycle resist movement of these shots into vertical alignment. As a result, the pile loops are somewhat longer lengthwise of the fabric than those in fabrics, such as are shown in Figs. 8 and 10, in which each pile loop crosses only a single filling shot.

The fabric shown in Fig. 13 is similar to that shown in Fig. 12 and includes top and bottom stutfer yarns TS, BS, filling shots 62, 63, 64 above the top stuffer yarns, between the top and bottom stuffer yarns, and below the bottom stutfer yarns, and binder yarns B holding the filling shots in place. The pile of the fabric is formed by pile yarns P which pass beneath successive filling shots 63 in the middle level and above filling shots 62, 64 in the top and bottom levels. As in the Fig. 12 construction, the fabric of Fig. 13 is ordinarily not beaten up to place the filling shots of a cycle in vertical alignment and this causes the pile loops to be somewhat longer lengthwise of the fabric than those in the fabrics of Figs. 8 and 10.

Iclaim: g

1. A method of wearving a pile fabric of pile warp yarns, stutter warp yarns, and a single set of binderwarp yarns interlaced with shots of filling yarn lying in a plurality of levels above and below stulfer' warp yarns, which comprises carrying out in each of a succession of cycles the steps of forming a series of sheds of the warp yarns, inserting a filling shot in each shed and heating it .up, at least one shed per cycle being formed with the pile and binder warp yarns in the upper line and the stuffer warp yarns in the lower line of the shed, drawing the pile yarns out of their normal positions in the upper line of said shed to form pile loops of uniform height, holding the loops drawn out until after the beat-up of a filling shot inserted below at least part of the stuffer warp yarns in a shed formed after the loops were drawn out and then reelasing the loops, each loop extending over at least one filling shot lying in the top level above the stuffer warp yarns, and, during each cycle, drawing increments of the pile warp yarns from individual supplies thereof and feeding the yarn increments toward the fell of the fabric, the increments varying in length in accordance with a pattern and the drawing out of a pile warp yarn to form a loop in a cycle, in which the increment of such yarn fed is less than the length of yarn required for formation of the loop causing the withdrawal of yarn from the loop of the yarn formed in the preceding cycle with resultant reduction in the height of that loop.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the sheds are formed to cause each loop of each pile warp yarn to 'be bound in the fabric by portions of the yarn at each 3. The method of claim 1, in which the sheds are formed to cause the stuffer warp yarns to lie in upper and lower sets with the filling shots lying in a top level above the upper set of stuffer warp yarns, in a middle level between the sets of stuifer warp yarns, and. in a bottom level below the lower set of stulfer warp yarns and to cause each loop of each pile warp yarn to be bound in the fabric by portions of the yarn at each end of the loop which pass beneath filling shots lying below the top level.

4. The method of claim 3, in which the sheds are formed to cause each loop of each pile warp yarn to be bound in the fabric by portions of the yarn at each end of the loop which pass beneath filling shots in the middle level.

5. The method of claim 3, in which the sheds are I formed to cause each loop of each pile warp yarn to be 7. The method of claim 1, in which the increments of the pile warp yarns are drawn from their supplies and fed toward the fell of the fabric simultaneously with the drawing out of such yarns to form loops.

8. The method of claim 1, in which the drawing of the pile warp yarns from their supplies and the feeding of such yarns toward the fell of'the fabric are effected by engaging a length of each yarn at a plurality of spaced points and deviating the yarn alternately to opposite sides of a rectilinear path and the yarns are advanced while being maintained in deviated condition.

9. The method of claim 1, in which the withdrawal of yarn from the loop formed in a cycle is caused partly by the drawing out of the yarn from the upper line of a shed formed in the following cycle and partly by the beating up of a filling shot inserted in a shed in said ing the hooks, and means for operating the pile yarn "feed means to feed an increment of each pile yam during each movement of the 'hooks forming loops of the pile yarns. i

11. The loom of claim 10, in which the reciprocating means and the operating means are coupled together and driven by a common means.

12. The loom of claim 10, in which the operating means include a ratchet wheel for driving the feed means and a pawl operated by the reciprocating means in the movement of the hooks to form pile loops and advancing the wheel one step.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,781,789 Rice Feb. 19, 1957 

